Hitlist

9- Accusation

Sakurai looked at Michiyo in disbelief.

"You were sneaking around in Ayano's room??!" Sakurai raised her voice. Michiyo's expression changed.

"Well... yes but this was for a very important reason-"

"I don't even know what to say. You can't just go snooping around in someone else's house!" Sakurai wasn't even paying attention to the piece of paper that Sakurai was trying to show her. Desperate, Michiyo threw it at Sakurai's face. "Hey what-" Sakurai stared at it, and then looked back at Michiyo.

It was a list of girl's names from their school, scribbled in untidy handwriting. A few of the names had red crosses in them. It hit Sakurai like a boulder. Sakurai snatched it from the floor and read through the list of names. The ones that were crossed off are the exact names of every student that has been eliminated so far.

"O-osana's name, Kizana's name... why are they all crossed off?! Did she kill them??" Lots of uneasy thoughts flew around Sakurai's head, making her feel sick. Michiyo wordlessly pointed to the bottom of the paper. There, the two names Sakurai and Michiyo were also scribbled down. Sakurai's soul left her body.

"Wait, why are we on here?! Is she planning to get rid of us too?" Sakurai's words came out as a whisper, with silent tears trickling down her cheeks. Michiyo nodded silently.

"I might be fine, since I'm moving schools, but your not safe." Michiyo said, in a serious tone, which didn't sound right coming from her mouth.

"This can't be real.." Sakurai muttered, shaking her head, "but there are other girl's names on here too, and they are all gonna die. We need to go to the police."

"That day, the day of the school play, when we saw Kizana get crushed I saw something else. A faint shadow from above her, who must have been the one who dropped it on her. I swear I saw Ayano's face for a second, before vanishing. No one else saw it and I told the police about it and they said they would interview her but she hasn't been arrested. She must have put on a huge innocent show about how she was just helping with lighting or something. I hate her. I HATE her." Michiyo's words felt more aggressive the more she spoke. Sakurai didn't know what to say- the two of them were accusing someone in their school of being a murderer.

"Wait, what if Ayano knew you went into her room yesterday..?"

"I don't know how, because I already left in time."

"Why does she even have this list?? What did we do?"

"That's what I've been trying to figure out myself." Michiyo took the list back from Sakurai's frozen hands.

The next day, at school~

As Sakurai walked through the halls, she made sure that she was never alone and there was always someone else in the corridor with her. She kept turning her head back to see behind her, which probably looked weird to other people, but she didn't care. Ayano was watching, wordlessly, before disappearing into the shadows.

Ayano headed for the abandoned classroom, which no one was ever allowed in.

"Come in." A sinister sounding voice said, from inside the room. The door unlocked and Ayano pulled on it. As she walked inside, the office chair swivelled around. "I have news for you."

"What news..?" Ayano asked, hesitantly.

"Kuroda Michiyo was in your room on Tuesday. She found your list of rivals. Ichika Sakurai and Kuroda Michiyo now suspect you." The mysterious figure propped their glasses.

Ayano looked taken back. "So I need to dispose of them before they tell anyone else."

"I have a safer plan, before you decide to kill them. That way, they won't even suspect you anymore and you can kill them without worrying that they could have told someone."

"And what will that be, info-chan."

Lunch time~

"I can't believe that tomorrow is my last day at this academy.." Michiyo said, plucking at her food. Sakurai looked behind her shoulder.

"How can you act so normal?" Sakurai whispered, "I am in constant fear over here."

"It will look suspicious otherwise, she might catch on."

Sakurai sighed, and tried to talk as usual. Suddenly, a member from Michiyo's club wanted her for something, in the clubroom.

"I can't leave you up here.." Michiyo said, gathering her bags to go to see what they wanted.

"I'll be fine, it's not like I'm the only student up here." Sakurai indicated to groups of other students eating up on the roof. "Plus, it doesn't look like Ayano is up here anywhere." Sakurai lowered her voice.

"Just please, be careful." Michiyo walked down the stairs, following her club member. Sakurai leant against the rails, suddenly remembering how Ayano appeared behind her the other day. She recalled feeling hands on her back, which felt like they wanted to push her. Was that Ayano's attempt to eliminate her? Sakurai faced forward, to the roof, so that no one could creep up behind her. She sat down, leaning against the rail, eating the rest of her lunch. Taro gave her a wave in the distance, before leaving the roof himself. That was when Sakurai felt her phone vibrate. A message from an unknown number. Sakurai felt her hands shake and her eyes grow wide, as she read the message, "I want to talk to you on the rooftop." Quickly, she picked up her bag and began running to the exit, she wasn't taking any chances. Before she could run through the doors to the stairs, Ayano wandered up them.

Sakurai stopped dead, as Ayano walked towards her.

"I want to speak to you."